Musings on Task Management

I was pretty jazzed about the Task Progress Tracker this week, but after using it for a few days, I think it’s falling short. There’s something there, but I’m not getting the same level of buzzy happiness from it that I did the PCEO.

Conceptually, I think some good ideas are in here:

It measures not only completeness, but effort too.

It’s “nag free”

It visually organizes time into an easy-to-read format

Yu have a place where you can keep a list of projects to scan

I’ve mostly been using this as a “projects I should be doing” tracker, so other people’s experiences may be a bit different. The main working problems I’ve had:

That first 15 minute bubble, while enticing, still isn’t quite enough motivation to push to action because the payoff isn’t there, as it is with the Printable CEO.

While the 15-min bubbles are cool, without noting the start time, now I have to estimate time or keep a clock around.

Even when I completed a task, the “DONE” checkbox is relatively week feeling, despite the additional graphics dressing I gave it. I ended up also crossing out the item description, which helped, but still…

Given the number of side projects I have going on, shuffling that paper around was a bit of a chore, especially since each sheet tends to look similar. The PCEO sheet is quite easy to keep track of visually. These new sheets just pile up. Putting them in a clipboard helped. Rustling through them was also helpful in keeping the projects fresh in my mind, but a simple To Do list does that much faster.

So it’s back to the drawing board.

I think I need to decouple the tasks themselves from the time tracking element, and maybe really consider how to introduce the point system back in. What I want to avoid is double-recording of the same information, lengthy transcription processes, and having to juggle too much information in the head at once. With simple recording built-up over time, the sheets should ideally tell you at a glance that you are being productive or not and provide a sense of accrued accomplishment.

If anyone else has had a different experience, successful or otherwise, let me know! I need data :-)